Monthly Archives: December 2009

While in the Philippines this Christmas season, I selected few organizations to help out with their charity giving. The first one was the Rotary Club of Metro Clark, who organized “Share a Toy, Share a Joy” event for street children, orphans, kids with disabilities, and aborigines of the Philippines held at the former Clark Air Force Base in Angeles City. Here are some images from this fun-filled event, where underprivileged children lined up to receive their toys and eat their favorite cheeseburger and ice cream. It feels good to see the faces of these children light up when they see their gifts. For most of them the toys they receive will serve as their only toy for the whole year.

The Litrato Photojournalism team is proud to be part of this event. And we thank the Oneill family (from the White Marsh Valley Country Club Portrait Session) for their donation to this cause.

While visiting family in my birth town in Pampanga, Philippines I got the chance to witness the 101st year celebration of the Giant Lantern Festival (Ligligan Parul). Below is a little history of this annual festival, which is held few days before Christmas:

The Giant Lantern Festival is an annual festival held in December (Saturday before Christmas Eve) in the City of San Fernando in the Philippines. The festival features a competition of giant lanterns. Because of the popularity of the festival, the city has been nicknamed the “Christmas Capital of the Philippines”.

The first lantern festival was held to honor PresidentManuel L. Quezon. At that time, Quezon made Arayat his rest area and converted Mount Arayat into a tourist resort. As a show of gratitude to Quezon, the people of San Fernando held a Christmas lantern contest to honor the first family. Quezon himself donated the prize for his lantern contest, which was personally awarded to the winner by First Lady Aurora Aragon Quezon.

In the years that followed, more innovations were introduced to the giant lanterns. Colored plastics replaced traditional papel de hapon. Large steel barrels called rotors also substituted the hand-controlled switches to manipulate the lights. And lanterns have grown in size, approximately 20-feet today, and illuminated by about 3,500 to 5,000 light bulbs.